Coming soon: Amazon Alexa-powered mobile accessories

With its main competitor Google Assistant already making its way to everything from smartwatches to headphones, Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant is also gearing up to do the same. Amazon on Friday announced that it is bringing an Alexa Mobile Accessory kit, which will allow the accessory manufacturers to integrate Alexa in their on-the-go devices like headphones, hearables, smartwatches and more.

With the Alexa Mobile Accessory Kit, the mobile accessories will be using the power of the Alexa mobile app on Android and iOS device to offer Alexa voice assistant to their users. So, pretty much everything will be happening your mobile device and the accessories will just act as a conduit.

“With the Alexa Mobile Accessory Kit, OEM development teams no longer need to perform the bulk of the coding for their Alexa integration. Bluetooth audio-capable devices built with this new kit can connect directly to the Alexa Voice Service (AVS) via the Amazon Alexa App (for Android and iOS) on the customer’s mobile device,” Amazon’s Gagan Luthra wrote in a blog post on Alexa blog.

The Alexa Mobile Accessory kit will be available later this year. Interested parties can sign up for notifications at this link.

Amazon has also announced that it is already working with some of the biggest accessory OEMs like Bose, Jabra, iHome, Beyerdynamic, Bowers and Wilkins to develop and offer Alexa-powered mobile accessories. Additionally, the likes of Linkplay, SUGR, and Libre Wireless will also be bringing an enhanced Alexa-on-the-go experience to their Bluetooth audio-capable products.

Given that Alexa’s availability is still limited to a select few markets, the upcoming Alexa-powered mobile accessories will also be available in these few markets and not globally.